Tax-time coming around again

By SCOTT BROOKS
Union Leader Staff 5 hours, 15 minutes ago
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The government's case against a Plainfield couple who refused to pay income taxes for more than a decade has drawn the ire of tax protesters and militia members from around the country, including some who have pledged to defend the couple with firearms if necessary.
Ed Brown has invited sympathizers, both armed and unarmed, to join him in an ongoing protest at his home in Plainfield. Brown has been holed up in the house for five days and says he has no plans to leave while his trial continues without him.
Several supporters -- including one who brought a gun -- have already come to his aid, vowing they will stand guard against government agents who would come for Brown.
"If they're coming, we will do what we've got to do," said John Miller of Farmington, one of about a half-dozen supporters at Browns' house yesterday.
U.S. Marshal Steve Monier dismissed talk of an impending confrontation, saying he has spoken with Brown several times and is keeping the line of communication open. Ed Brown stands in the barricaded doorway of his Plainfield home yesterday, saying he is prepared for an armed standoff as he fights tax evasion charges. (AP)

"Our discussions with him have been very low key, amicable, non-threatening," Monier said. "And I can tell you any discussion as to an armed standoff, some kind of siege at Mr. Brown's residence, is not even on the table for discussion."
Brown, who keeps a handgun tucked in his waistband, has said he is prepared for an armed standoff but maintains he hopes that can be avoided.
"I've threatened no one. They're threatening me," he said. "Doesn't anybody get that?"
Authorities say Brown and his wife, Elaine, did not pay income taxes for 11 years. Both Browns are charged with conspiring to evade taxes, conspiring to disguise large financial transactions and disguising large transactions. Elaine Brown faces two other charges, also related to tax evasion.
The Browns maintain the U.S. Constitution does not require them to pay taxes and challenged federal authorities to prove otherwise.
Elaine Brown, who works as a dentist, had been considering a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office. She rejected the deal and has since returned to court, where she took the stand before resting her case yesterday. Jury deliberations are now under way.
Brown is being tried in absentia.
"Most Americans," Brown told The Associated Press yesterday, "would cower and cringe and raise their hands and surrender like a good little slave.
"I won't. Under no circumstances. I do not tolerate cowardness, oppression, bulliness, and I certainly don't tolerate a federal agency that has absolutely zero jurisdiction in my state, never mind in my county, in my town."►Plainfield neighbors take it all in stride►Tax trial defendants skip court, asking 'What's the point?'►Location of the Browns' rural home

Anti-government crusaders throughout the country have taken an active interest in the Browns' case. Last week, an Internet radio host from Denver called on his listeners to descend on Plainfield, "armed to the teeth" with firearms and video cameras.
Those who plan to make the trip have said they would not initiate any violence, but would arm themselves "for defensive purposes only," said radio host Rick Stanley.
Other sympathizers have suggested a violent standoff may be imminent.
One letter writer, a New Hampshire man who calls Brown a close friend and mentor, says a standoff is developing and "like Waco, will result in the deaths of innocent people."
The writer, 41-year-old William Miller, also called for the judge in Brown's case, the U.S. attorney in New Hampshire and other officials to be "hanged for treason."
Miller -- whose brother, John, and mother, Marie, stood by Brown's side in Plainfield yesterday -- now says his letter was more inflammatory than it should have been, but maintains he does not regret writing it.
"Somebody's got to do it," he said, "otherwise nothing's going to change around here."
Some supporters, such as Fred Smart, have urged non-violence. Smart is the national volunteer coordinator for the America: Freedom to Fascism network, a group that believes the government is imposing illegitimate taxation on its citizens.
Most people following the case want a peaceful resolution, Smart said.
"I think it could easily go in the other direction," he said. "But I'm very hopeful, and I'll remain hopeful, that it doesn't have to."
A retired exterminator, Brown has been a prominent figure in anti-tax and anti-government circles for more than a decade. He is the founder of an organization called the Un-American Activities Investigations Commission, whose members purportedly seek out criminal elements within the government, "from the President on down."
Brown is also a former head of the U.S. Constitution Rangers, a national organization that looks to defend citizens against perceived encroachments by the government. He still ranks among the group's leaders.
The Constitution Rangers were formed in Arizona in the 1980s, although the group frequently claims to take authority from the U.S. Constitutional Convention, according to Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research for the Anti-Defamation League. Members wear badges and claim to be officers in a legitimate law enforcement agency, he said.
Pitcavage has been researching Brown and other suspected militia leaders since the mid-1990s, when the movement gained steam in the United States, he said. Brown, he said, was one of the most prominent New England militia leaders in the 1990s.
U.S. Marshal Steve Monier said the Constitutional Rangers do not have a history of violence in New Hampshire.
Monier said his office does not plan to confront Brown. That might not be the case if Brown was charged with a violent felony, he suggested. This case, he noted, is about income taxes.
"You've got to keep this in perspective," Monier said.

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficient. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
-- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficient. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
-- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence, and a speck of initiative, can do a little research and see that the 16 th amendment is not valid. It was never constitutionally ratified and even if it was it would still be invalid as it violates the 4th amendment confirming our right to be secure in our home and papers and the Apportionment clause in Article 1, section 2.

But there are those who would say "It's the law, you must obey it."
If it violates the constitution then it IS NOT a valid law. And as long as people go along to get along it will continue to be illegally enforced.

Whenever some one stands up to these type of unconstitutional laws, and abuse of our constitutional rights, they are labeled "Anti-Government Crusaders", right wing nuts, militia fanatics etc.

But as long as you bow and kneel and lick the hands of those who would enslave you then you are "Patriotic" and a good citizen.

Isn't New Hampshire the "Live free or die" state? It would seem that the .gov abc's are going to force Mr. Brown to choose. A choice that we all may face some day.

Bill Benson has done some great research on the 16th Amendment. His conclusions are set forth in his thoroughly researched work The Law That Never Was: the amendment was never properly ratified and the federal personal income tax remains unconstitutional because being a direct tax, the personal income tax violates the apportionment clause of Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution.

</TD><TD vAlign=center width="30%" height=194><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=599 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=center width="41%" height=465>The Discovery</B>Article V of the U.S. Constitution specifies the ratification process, and requires 3/4 of the States to ratify any amendment proposed by Congress. There were 48 States in the American Union in 1913, meaning that affirmative action of 36 states was required for ratification. In February, 1913, Secretary of State Philander Knox issued a proclamation claiming that 38 states had ratified the amendment.In 1984, William J. Benson began a research project, never before performed, to investigate the process of ratification of the 16th Amendment. After traveling to the capitols of the New England states, and reviewing the journals of the state legislative bodies, he saw that many states had not ratified the Amendment. Continuing his research at the National Archives in Washington, DC, Bill Benson discovered his Golden Key. This damning piece of evidence is a 16 page memorandum from the Solicitor of the Department of State, whose duty is the provision of legal opinions for the use of the Secretary of State. In this memorandum sent to the Secretary of State, the Solicitor of the Department of State lists the many errors he found in the ratification process! The 4 states listed below are among the 38 states that Philander Knox claimed ratification from. <DIR><DIR>The Kentucky Senate voted upon the resolution, but rejected it by a vote of 9 in favor and 22 opposed.The Oklahoma Senate amended the language of the 16th Amendment to have a precisely opposite meaning.The California legislative assembly never recorded any vote upon any proposal to adopt the amendment proposed by Congress. The State of Minnesota sent nothing to the Secretary of State in Washington.
</DIR></DIR>When his year long project was finished at the end of 1984, Bill had visited every state capitol and knew that not a single state had actually and legally ratified the proposal to amend the Constitution. 33 states engaged in the unauthorized activity of amending the language of the amendment proposed by congress, a power the states do not possess. Since 36 states were needed for ratification, the failure of 13 to ratify would be fatal to the amendment, and this occurs within the major (first three) defects tabulated in Defects in Ratification of the 16th Amendment. Even if we were to ignore defects of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, we would still have only 2 states which successfully ratified.

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Bill BensonAfter serving time in federal prison for not paying his United States income taxes, Bill Benson still does not pay income taxes and yet our federal government chooses not to arrest him. Why? Because now he can use this book, which he has written : 'THE LAW THAT NEVER WAS' in his defense. To this day, Bill Benson proclaims, just as loudly, that he will not pay an unjust and corrupt federal income tax.

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"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." - John F. Kennedy

"You took the good things for granted-now you must earn them again. For every right that you cherish, you have a duty that you must fulfill. For every hope that you entertain, you have a task that you must perform. For every good that you wish to preserve, you will have to sacrifice your comfort and ease. There is nothing for nothing any longer." -George Washington

Fox news has been reporting on this this morning. I saw it a couple of times but was on the phone and didn't hear the commentary. I'm watching for it to come on again.

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." - John F. Kennedy

"You took the good things for granted-now you must earn them again. For every right that you cherish, you have a duty that you must fulfill. For every hope that you entertain, you have a task that you must perform. For every good that you wish to preserve, you will have to sacrifice your comfort and ease. There is nothing for nothing any longer." -George Washington

As you may or may not know (some sheriffs don't), the sheriff is the highest law-enforcement authority in a county. It is the duty of the sheriff to uphold the Constitution and protect the citizens of that county from any and all forces threatening them, including federal agencies which have no authority or jurisdiction within the county. Without the sheriff's permission, federal agencies cannot arrest a citizen anywhere within the county. Yes, they often do it but they do it illegally every time they do it. A few sheriffs around the country have put federal agencies on notice to stay out of their counties. One, whose name I don't recall at the moment, told them he would not conduct background checks for purchasers of firearms. Though he approached it for the wrong reasons (he didn't want to bear the expense), he did learn in the process that the feds don't have jurisdiction within the external boundaries of the 50 states. The Supreme Court has so ruled in quite a number of cases.

Ed and Elaine Brown are residents of your county. They deserve your protection. They have violated no law. They have become a POLITICAL target of the IRS because they have become too visible and threaten to expose the fact that there is no law requiring most Americans to pay an income tax on their domestic incomes. Government prosecutors must silence them, therefore, and federal judges are all too eager to help them get convictions, to the extent that they routinely deny defendants fair trials.

There simply is no such law, and no government prosecutor has ever been able to produce such a law when juries have specifically asked for it. That's why 15% of the federal tax trials end in acquittals, because some juries, dumb though most of them are, insist upon seeing the law that defendants are accused of violating. It is not unlawful to not file a return unless the law requires you to file one...and there is no law. If one doesn't actually owe a tax, then it is not unlawful to structure financial transactions so as to avoid a tax one doesn't owe in the first place. And if one doesn't owe a tax, then one can hardly defraud the government of a tax he didn't owe to begin with, now can he?

You probably don't believe that.

Humor me. Ask the federal prosecutor, the IRS, the U.S. Marshals, and the judge to show YOU the law. They cannot. When they cannot, then doesn't it become your duty to protect the Browns from unlawful arrest?

If you want to learn for yourself, work your way methodically through this computer search of the tax code. It contains the best explanation in existence of WHAT THE LAW REALLY SAYS:

I don't know you or your background, any more than you know mine. But I know that among the many reasons our ancestors fled Great Britain was to establish a government of laws and force that government to abide by them. Among the things the Constitution was intended to prohibit is debtors' prisons, and it does precisely that....in words, at least. In practice, however, we have federal prisons which house thousands of innocent citizens who allegedly "owe the master," therefore they are, indeed, debtors' prisons despite being prohibited by the Constitution. They don't "owe the master," according to the law, but countless juries have been bamboozled into convicting many an innocent defendant wrongfully accused of a wide variety of so-called tax crimes which are not crimes at all according to the law....they are PERCEIVED crimes, but nothing more.

My background? I served 20 years in the Army, including three tours in Vietnam, achieved the highest enlisted rank, and like to think the freedom I helped defend abroad is being defended at home by those charged with that responsibility. You ARE one of those, Sheriff Prozzo, and I urge you to do your duty. Deny the feds access to the Browns. You can do that, it's within your authority and it is your sworn duty.

If nothing else Mr. Brown has brought this to the attention of a national audience. Whether you think him a fool, fanatic, or freakshow, you have to respect the man for taking a stand. Few people in this country are willing to put their fortunes, freedom, and lives on the line for a principal. We need more people like this.

"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." - John F. Kennedy

"You took the good things for granted-now you must earn them again. For every right that you cherish, you have a duty that you must fulfill. For every hope that you entertain, you have a task that you must perform. For every good that you wish to preserve, you will have to sacrifice your comfort and ease. There is nothing for nothing any longer." -George Washington